I think your poll so far is telling you somehting. No one else can answer that for you. No on else knows what you need it for. No one else knows if you're paranoid and fear the black heli's will be swooping in to take your family away. No one else knows what you have ample safe storage for. No one else knows........ :devil:

Just realized that there was an ammo section after posting this. Too late now. I am asking for a future ar and bolt 308 purchase. Not worried about black helis, but want enough to last. Was thinking 1-3K for the AR and 1-2K for the bolt.

Ideally I'd like to have at least 5,000rds of all the standard NATO small arms calibers (.308, 9mm, 5.56, etc) and all the common stuff here in the US (.30-06, .45acp, etc) as well as like 20,000rds of .22lr because it's so darn cheap.

i think to answer this, you have to decide how much you intend to shoot. if ammo were unavailable...period, how long would your supply last? if you shoot a particular weapon a couple times a year? 1k would last a long time.... if you shoot it every weekend, you may need 10k?
as stated in an earlier post, each person needs to decide what they are comfortable with.

I store up based on the continuing increase in ammo (I don't reload and don't plan to) and my ability to purchase some at a good price with cash on hand (no credit cards).

Sure, I could put that money in some type of savings but would it generate enough to keep up with ammo inflation? Not that I know of (from experience within the last few years). But it's possible so that needs to be looked at.

And then there's the "will it be available later" question some people have. I purchase 5.7x28mm and .223/5.56 ammo. Will it be banned at some point in time? I don't know. But I can't worry about that because for all I know the actual possession of it could be banned (not likely, just pointing out different scenarios).

So when all the dust settles, my buying still depends on cost and funding availability. I've also cut down on the "number" of calibers I keep. For example I sold all my .38 Super, .45 ACP, .380 ACP, .357 Magnum handguns to concentrate on 9mm, .223/5.56, 5.7x28mm, .410 bore. All the guns I sold were just range guns anyway and I like my current collection just fine.

I can guarantee you that I have LOTS AND LOTS of ammo on hand. :happy0001: